


Sealed

by SherlockianSyndromes



Series: The Beast In My Bones [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Demon Deals, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 05:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13944060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockianSyndromes/pseuds/SherlockianSyndromes
Summary: Rodney would do anything to prove that he's the best. Even if it meant selling his soul.





	Sealed

Rodney flinched in his chair and gasped. The sharp sound of it echoed in the open space of the library’s top floor and disappeared soon after. 

 _Hypnic jerk. Muscles twitching. First stage of sleep. Can't yet. Need to finish this._  

Rodney blinked his eyes with forceful purpose, as if the mere action of blinking would will his mind and body to stay awake. He was in the library, it was late, and he couldn't remember the last time he had actually slept. He recalled taking a fifteen minute nap before his shift at the lab a few hours earlier, but that had only exhausted Rodney further. Now he was fighting sleep while trying to put the final touches on his damn annual report for the physics professors that comprised the committee Rodney reported to.

 _Surely this can't be that hard,_ Rodney thought to himself. _It's just words. Words explaining what I already know as fact to these Cro Magnons they hired as professors._  

Rodney knew he was the best. He knew it when he built a nearly-functioning atom bomb in the sixth grade, he knew it when he breezed through his undergrad studies like they were nothing, and he knew it when he got accepted into this doctoral program. The _problem_ was that no one else seemed to think that he was the best. And he was slowly killing himself in pursuit of proving all of them wrong. 

Rodney looked down at his notes. He saw that he had been in the middle of a word in the middle of a sentence when his pen had trailed off the index card. He picked the pen back up and finished the interrupted thought. 

Rodney felt his whole body ache from lack of sleep and sighed. He looked at his watch: 11:30. Only 30 minutes until he would be kicked out of the library. The pen in his hand tapped on the half-filled index card without thought or purpose. Finally, in a fit of madness, Rodney wrote one more sentence on the unfinished card. 

 _I would sell my soul to be the very best at what I do._  

The library was normally quiet at this time, since the less dedicated students had already surrendered and gone home. But Rodney noticed that this was a different quiet. It was actually _silence._ No clocks ticking. No hum of electronics. No squeaky book cart wheels. No murmuring students at all. 

It was a complete absence of sound. 

Then Rodney heard a voice, whispering right into his ear.

“Care to make it interesting?”

Rodney scrambled out of his chair in the opposite direction the voice had come from. The chair tipped over onto the floor with a loud thud and Rodney found himself scampering and scooting himself along the floor before he finally stopped.

Someone was standing where there had previously been nothing and nobody.

His hair was jet black and defied the laws of gravity. He took a seat on the desk Rodney had been working at and gave Rodney a scrutinizing gaze, sizing him up. The man was tall and lean, and his eyes seemed grey at first glance, but the color shifted with every twist and turn of his head.

 _Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming. Only my brain could create a delusion this gorgeous._ Rodney stared at him blankly, though his body still tensed up defensively.

The mystery man spoke again.

“Well? Did you hear what I said?”

His voice was both rough and musical all at once. Rodney closed his eyes, shook his head, and the man was still perched on Rodney’s desk when he opened his eyes.

“Who...who are you?”

“Oh, so you do talk?” The man laughed. “You can call me John.”

“Okay, John…” Rodney ran a hand through his hair and got up from the floor. “Where did you come from? I swear there was nobody in here just a minute ago.”

John stood up from the desk and walked toward him. Rodney tensed up again, not knowing what to expect. John started to walk in a slow circle around him. _Like stalking prey,_ Rodney thought.

“Does that make me a predator?” John’s voice growled low as he completed another circle around Rodney and stopped right in front of him.

“Wait, how...can you read my mind?”

John moved another step closer, and Rodney instinctively took a step back to put distance between them. John chuckled in amusement at Rodney’s skittish behavior.

“By the way, thanks for the whole gorgeous thing, but I’m not a delusion. I’m here to make a deal with you.”

“What do you mean, make a deal? Look, I’m not interested in cheating or anything if that’s what you think. I don’t need to cheat, I’m the best this program has -”

“Whoa, slow down. I’m here because of what you wrote on the card.”

Rodney’s eyes went wide. “What I wrote...on the card?” He went over to the desk and picked up the index card he’d been working on. Rodney laughed, the sound stark and panicked against the complete silence in the room. “What do you mean, that I wanted to sell my soul? C’mon, quit joking around, uh, John, was it?”

John’s eyes were burning a hole through Rodney’s skull. Rodney clutched the card in his hand and started to pack up his things. It was time to go home. _Now._

“Meredith Rodney McKay.”

Rodney froze. “Just...Rodney is fine. How do you know my full name?”

John closed the distance between them again, but Rodney couldn’t make himself move. He was too busy staring into those eyes. Rodney swore he saw flames flickering in the chromatic irises as John stepped into the light coming from the desk lamp.

“I know what you want. You want to be the best, and I can help you be the best. But only if you sell me your soul.”

Rodney shook his head. “I have to be dreaming. Wake up, self. Wake. Up.” He slapped his hands against his face in an attempt to wake himself up in the real world. John grabbed Rodney’s wrists.

“Calm down, okay? _Sell_ is an archaic word, I’ll give you that. Think of it as… leasing. You would be leasing your soul to me.”

Rodney’s brow furrowed. “How do I know this _lease_ doesn’t last forever? How do I know you’ll actually help me? And what do you get out of it anyway? What are you?”

John grinned, crooked and sly. “I’m the Mephistopheles to your Faust. You remember Faust, don’t you Rodney?”

“Yes, but I don’t particularly feel like getting enslaved by the Devil for some good grades and lukewarm job opportunities.”

John rolled his eyes. “Trust me, I’ll get bored. Stirring the pot is fun, but it gets a bit tedious when it’s just the _one_ pot after a while. There are a lot of souls out there, ripe for...leasing.”

“Why my soul then?”

John smiled at Rodney again. “Hey, you called. I answered.”

Rodney nodded, his slowing cognitive ability hampered even further by that smile. “So, if I lease you my soul, you’ll help me get what I want.”

“Easy as pie, right?”

“I…guess.” Rodney had no idea what was happening. If he was dreaming or hallucinating, his mind was doing a fairly good job of tricking him. This John guy seemed real enough. He was still grasping Rodney’s wrists after all.

“So, Rodney…” John’s voice lowered to a sultry whisper. “Care to make it interesting?”

Rodney smiled, let his brain win him over in its giddy, nonsensical hallucination of a beautiful man asking for his soul. _Why not? Why the_ hell _not?_

“Yes, John. I’ll sell you my soul to be the best at what I do.”

John gripped Rodney’s wrists harder and tugged him closer. Rodney could barely breathe. It had been too long since he’d been this close...well, to anyone.

“This contract is sealed.” John’s voice was a breathy murmur. He tilted his head and paused, waiting for Rodney to change his mind. Rodney did what felt right, and what felt right was to kiss this mirage of a man before he disappeared forever.

Rodney closed his eyes and slid his hands up John’s arms until they rested on his shoulders. John’s hands rested lightly on Rodney’s hips, and Rodney felt John smile against his lips as he gently kissed him back. Rodney’s body felt lighter, like at any moment he would float away into space, stuck in this unbelievable moment forever.

_See ya around._

And then Rodney woke up.

*

The clocks chimed midnight, and the library aide stomped her way up the stairs to round up any lingering students.

Rodney blinked a few times and scrubbed at his face with his hands. He looked down at the desk and saw the index card sitting there.

_I would sell my soul to be the very best at what I do._

_A dream,_ Rodney thought. _Just a silly, stupid dream._

He gathered up his belongings and stuffed them into his backpack. Rodney met the aide at the top of the stairs. She said good night, and he nodded curtly in return.

Maybe if he hurried home, he could fall back to sleep and back into the arms of that mysterious John character he invented.

*

The next day after a glorious, but dreamless, six hours of sleep, Rodney gave his annual report to the committee. He had an answer for every question, and it felt amazing. Rodney could see their faces, the bulbs lighting up behind their eyes as he went over the progress he had made in his research.

Rodney was invincible. He was the _best_.

Maybe he’d just needed some sleep after all.

After the meeting was finished, Rodney strolled toward the physics lab with a spring in his step. He was more enthusiastic about his research than ever before, even though Rodney’s mind kept returning to that man, that kiss, that…deal.

_It wasn’t real. It was a dream._

Then a voice, whispering, the same as it had the night before.

“You’re welcome, Meredith.”

Rodney stopped in his tracks, a cold chill running through his body. He glanced over his shoulder, and thought he felt the ghost of John’s presence as he turned to find nothing and no one at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank [nagi_schwarz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/) for introducing me to Stargate Atlantis and encouraging me to write McShep fic. You're the best!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this AU introduction. There will definitely be more stories, so stay tuned!


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